Royal Enfield may look at hiking prices in April over commodities

Niche bike maker Royal Enfield may look at hiking prices from April in view of rising commodity prices, a top company official said on Wednesday.

The company, which is a part of Eicher Motors, has already increased prices by multiple times over the last six months.

"Commodity prices have gone up, we have tried to offset it by multiple things including price hikes in the last few months. We will probably be increasing prices again in April like everyone else in the industry," Royal Enfield CEO Vinod K Dasari told reporters.

When asked about the quantum of the price hike, Dasari said it would be in single digit (percentage terms).

Elaborating on the company's export plans, Eicher Managing Director Siddhartha Lal said the company aims to be the number one player in the mid-sized motorcycle segment globally.

"We want to be present across all relevant markets across the globe. Our aim is to be number one player in the mid size bike segment in the next decade," he noted.

Lal said the company had enough headroom for a year or two in terms of production capacity across its manufacturing plants. On introducing electric vehicles, he said time was not ripe to come out with products which the company would like to bring, due to cost and other factors.

The company is working on the EV technology but there were no immediate plans regarding introduction of such vehicles, he added. During the quarter ended December 31, 2020, Royal Enfield sold 1.99 lakh units, up 5 per cent from 1.89 lakh units in October-December 2019-20.